TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AT AGAMA RAKYAT SCHOOLS

Abstract

This research was conducted to gain preliminary insights on how English is taught at nine Agama Rakyat Schools in Perak, Malaysia. The study involves 28 English language teachers from 9 Agama Rakyat schools. Quantitative and qualitative measures were taken in collecting and analyzing data. A survey was carried out to gain teachers’ views on their teaching and learning practices in schools. Classroom observation sessions were also made to examine the teaching methodology practiced by the teachers involved.  This is followed by interview sessions with the teachers to gauge the underlying principles for the respective English language teaching behaviors observed in the classrooms. It was found that almost all the teacher participants lack pedagogical content knowledge and some has never received any forms of formal teacher training. The classroom observations that were carried out generally showed a climate which is not conducive to support English language learning. The research results have provided insights in our effort to understand the realities and complexities of teaching English language at the Agama Rakyat schools in Malaysia.